A major portion of aircraft final assembly flow time is consumed in joining the wing to the fuselage. In conventional jet transport aircraft, the wings are joined to the fuselage by fixed pins which join the front and rear wing spars to major frames of the fuselage. This approach requires drilling and installing hundreds of fasteners and, as a result, is very time consuming.
During taxiing, takeoff, flight and landing, the wing can experience a wide range of loading conditions from lift, drag, air gusts, and the landing gear. These loads cause the wing to flex and bend, which in turn imparts loads and deflections to the fuselage through the wing-to-fuselage attachments. In general, the vertical, side, and fore and aft loads from the wing can be carried by existing fuselage structures. For example, the vertical and side loads can be carried by the fuselage frames, and the fore and aft loads can be carried by the fuselage skin panels. The wing bending loads, however, require additional fuselage frame reinforcement to adequately carry the loads and prevent fuselage distortion. This frame reinforcement is considered “parasitic structure” because it is not required to carry the fuselage loads.
As the foregoing discussion suggests, current methods of joining wings to fuselages in jet transport aircraft can be both time-consuming and costly, with the added downside that the additional fuselage weight reduces aircraft performance and fuel efficiency. Accordingly, new methods and systems for joining aircraft wings to fuselages that require less time and structural reinforcement would be desirable.